Talk:Mudbrick

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Contents 1 student project 2 Adobe 3 spelling error 4 Technical aspects such as soil composition

[edit] student project

1/23/2006 In Winnetka, CA, USA, I am going to have my students build miniature mud bricks and then build models of ancient homes from when people first started living in cities, such as in Sumer. Wish me luck!

[edit] Adobe

If, as the article says,

Adobe is a common substitute for the word mudbrick

then shouldn't they be merged? Note that this article suggests mudbricks are not durable, yet the adobe article suggests that adobe is very durable. This needs to be cleared up. (Not my area of expertise, but I'll keep an eye on it.) --Singkong2005 02:40, 17 February 2006 (UTC)

I agree that this article and the adobe one need to be looked at together and probably merged or somehow brought into a single structure (so to speak). I'm not an expert either, but having lived in Djenné, read on the subject, and spoken with some experts (some time ago), it doesn't make sense to have these separate. In fact, the topic requires us to think outside of the, uh, mold. The "bricks" used in Djenné are a historically recent introduction; the mosque there and the old buildings you'll see were built with a kind of hand formed brick that if memory serves is called "pere" - which has some structural advantages over the rectangular bricks. A common approach to the topic would allow such diverse aspects to be treated together. --A12n 18:39, 5 November 2006 (UTC)

Currently the article says:

Adobe is a type of mudbrick also used today to save energy and is an environmentally safe way to insulate a house.

...but this seems like a very narrow interpretation based on contemporary concerns. It is not as broad as the definition given in the adobe article as follows:

Adobe is a natural building material composed of sand, sandy clay and straw or other organic materials, which is shaped into bricks using wooden frames and dried in the sun.

...which sounds a lot like mudbricks. --A12n 03:36, 10 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] spelling error

the world construction is spelled wrong in that right hand box. It's spelled as contruction. I don't know how to fix it, so i was hopeing someone else could. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 71.211.64.163 (talk • contribs) 02:00, 24 April 2006.

Thanks - now fixed. The image tag markup block at the top of the page might look a little confusing, but the caption after the last | character, is just normal wiki-markup and can be edited as usual. If you are worried about messing things up, just use the preview button to check any changes before saving. But don't worry too much, any mistakes are easy for someone else to change back. -- Solipsist 20:36, 24 April 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Technical aspects such as soil composition

One of the problems I see with this article and the adobe one is the need for more attention to some very basic technical issues. I think that the more one gets into that, the rationale for separate articles becomes more tenuous.

For instance, this article discusses mudbricks as made from clay. THis is not entirely accurate. The soil used to make mud for adobe or mudbricks has - as any soil - three or four main components. THe three are clay, silt and sand (see Soil texture for instance). Clay is a key to good material for construction, but I'm not sure what the ideal mixes are.

The statement in the article that mudbricks (AKA adobe) last only 30 years is incomplete. It depends on the quality of the material - IOW, the percentages of clay, sand and silt, and perhaps the fourth element, organic matter. To my way of thinking - as a non-expert in this form of construction, but one who has seen and lived in a lot of adobe/mudbrick construction in the Sahel (including Djenné, where structures have endured centuries) - I would think that this is fundamental to any discussion. Including discussion on the merging of articles (or not). --A12n 03:29, 10 December 2006 (UTC)